Harry Runs Into An Old Muggle Classmate
by LumosSword134
Summary: One-Shot. Harry runs into a an old Muggle classmate from primary school while out in London with Ginny, Ron, and Hermione.


"I can't tell you the play, you've got enough money, and I don't need you betting based off information you shouldn't know - ,"

"How can you accuse me - ?"

"Accuse _you_ , Ron?" Ginny said sarcastically, jabbing her fork at him threateningly. "Oh, I don't know, what could I possibly be thinking to make such a claim."

Harry shared a grin with Hermione, and kept quiet. It was true that Ron had once bet on Ginny's team, but so had Harry, and for that matter, so had Hermione. This was innocent enough, but Harry had found Ginny's playbook and Ginny, assuming they made their bets with previous knowledge of the gameplay, had lost faith in all of them, but most of all Ron, since he, as her brother, was the easiest target. It did not seem to matter that the game in question was a charity event for St. Mungo's and was not part of the league, or that all three of them had lost money because they had bet against Ginny's team (not for the first time, and each time with absolute faith the Holyhead Harpies would win).

No, Harry was sure she was not actually angry at all, Ginny simply enjoyed being argumentative with Ron and Ron enjoyed fighting back. Perhaps it was a Weasley trait, or a characteristic of large families. Harry knew what Ginny looked like angry, and this was not it. There was still a spark of glee in her eyes as she volleyed creative insults with Ron. Hermione knew this too, and so they sat and enjoyed the banter while feeling fortunate they had not been made to participate - yet, anyway.

"Your bill," Their server announced. Ron reached out and took the bill.

They were at a muggle restaurant in London, near the Ministry of Magic headquarters, catching up. Harry and Hermione saw each other occasionally at work, but Ron had recently joined George as co-owner of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and it was only evenings such as these that Harry ever saw him. Admittedly, they met up at least once or twice a week, sometimes more, but it was still a transition from seeing Ron and Hermione virtually every day since they'd met.

Hermione took out her muggle cash and set it on the table, and they decided the night was not yet over, and to head back to Hermione and Ron's, just around the corner.

"Ginny," Ron said with the false air of flattery, "you know I think you're the best professional Quidditch player there is - second best in the Weasley family, but first best in the league."

"Oh, are you counting me as a Weasley?" Harry joked. Ginny snorted with laughter at the jab at Ron, but straightened her face quickly enough to say, "You wish you were the best, Potter."

As Harry stepped through the threshold out into the chilly street, he turned his head to exchange a smile with Ginny, and bumped into someone coming in from the other direction.

"Oof - I'm sorry!" Harry said, still smiling, and - making the quick assessment that the woman was perfectly alright - had already turned away when the woman in question said, "Harry Potter?"

Harry turned again, not wholly unsurprised to be recognized in London, although it was, technically speaking, a rarity in the Muggle parts of town, which Harry frequented for that very purpose.

Harry did not feel remotely in danger, yet he instinctively put his hand in his pocket and grabbed hold of his wand.

"Yes?"

"It's Katrina Williams!"

Harry stared at her blankly, not recognizing the name. The woman became suddenly animated and said with bizarre smile, "Troll-y Trina" while framing her face with her hands.

Harry, completely nonplussed, continued to stare at her. Ron and Hermione were peering over Ginny trying to see why Harry was still blocking the way.

"Katrina…?" Her companion said uncertainly, attempting to nudge her through the door.

Then Harry remembered - they had gone to school together before Hogwarts. She had lived in Little Whinging, a few streets down from Privet Drive. He had not thought of her in over eleven years. She had also been bullied by Dudley and his gang, although not nearly as much as Harry had been. His only real memory of her was both of them being locked in the same lavatory at school while Piers Polkiss threatened to pee on them if they did not kiss each other before a teacher came and unlocked the door. It had not been a traumatizing experience for Harry (who was used to much worse from Dudley and his friends), but it had, at the very least, made this girl slightly more memorable than the other students Harry had gone to school with.

"Katrina Williams?" Harry cleared his head with a shake.

"I knew it was you!" Katrina said excitedly. "You just look exactly the same, only older! I've seen Dudley around some, and he looks so different."

Ginny, Hermione, and Ron eyes all widened, realizing this was someone Harry knew from childhood.

"Yeah, he lost the baby fat - ." Harry said, still somewhat in shock.

Katrina snorted at the euphemism.

"Harry," Hermione said from the back, "We're blocking the threshold - let's move back inside where it's warm."

"Right!" Katrina rubbed her hands together to illustrate warming herself up, and then pulled her companion, who seemed oddly reluctant, into the tiny foyer of the restaurant, where they all stood somewhat cramped for being practically strangers. Harry wished they had gone outside, despite the cold. Being inside seemed uncomfortably like committing to a long conversation.

"Hi, I'm Katrina," Katrina said, holding her hand out and shaking Ginny's, Hermione's, and Ron's hands. "My husband, Jacob Jorgenson."

Jacob did not shake their hands, but merely inclined his head stiffly, his face deepening in color. Katrina seemed to think this was odd behavior, and hit him coyly with the mittens she had just pulled from her hands.

"It's so nice to meet you," Ginny said enthusiastically, giving a comforting squeeze on Harry's arm, "I'm Ginny, Harry's girlfriend. You knew each other in school?"

"Primary school," Katrina said nodding, then asked Harry, "You never went to Stonewall, did you? I don't think I ever saw you there."

"Er - no, boarding school," Harry said.

"Oo, nice - was that the, er, the Dursley's idea, was it?"

"Er - no, my choice, my parents left me some money to pay for it."

"Right," Katrina said, perhaps interpreting Harry's awkward demeanor as him not wanting to elaborate. She looked over them all, casting around for something new to say. "So, what have you been up to these past - what - ten years? Eleven years?"

Jacob was suddenly overcome in a coughing fit, and the conversation was momentarily put on hold until Katrina was satisfied her husband's health was in tact.

"School, then work," Harry answered when the conversation resumed. "…you know how it is."

"Yeah," Katrina said with several dramatic nods. I just graduated uni a year and a half ago and I feel like I've only just started to get on my feet! We actually just got married, so you know -," she made a check mark motion with her hand, "crossed that off the list!" She laughed and elbowed her husband, who seemed unamused.

"Oh, how exciting," Ginny said, and Harry inwardly thanked her for her natural ability to be engaging with strangers, "Did you get to go anywhere for a honeymoon?"

"Not too far - South of France!"

Hermione immediately perked up.

"Oo, the South of France! Isn't it lovely? Did you see the Gorges du Verdon?"

"Yes," Katrina said brightly, I've never seen anything so grand! Though admittedly," she said with a shrug, "that's the first time I've left the country."

"Well, you picked a good one," Hermione said.

"Thanks!"

Another pause followed, then Hermione asked, "So what sort of work do you do?"

"I work in the HR department of a digital media company here in London - I know! Exciting, right?" she said, rolling her eyes.

"What's digital media?" Ron asked. Hermione tugged his jacket, her way of saying "act like a Muggle!"

"Oh, well, we don't make our _own_ media, but we sell storage and provide some service support for other people's media… basically." Katrina said, clearly thinking she had explained it poorly when Ron still looked confused. "Er - what about you?"

"Katrina," her husband said, "We don't want to keep them from their evening."

"It's not a problem at all," Ginny said, waving away Jacob's concern, "I work in sports. Harry here is in law enforcement at the Ministry."

"Oh nice! Jacob here is in the government too," she said knowingly." Jacob cast Katrina a forced smile.

Everyone nodded, and an awkward silence fell.

Hermione, perhaps in an attempt to make everything more comfortable said, "Jacob, what sort of government job do you have?"

"I work in - ," he cast a nervous look at his wife, "I actually work in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes."

Harry thought he had misheard at first, but the look Katrina gave her husband showed she was just as surprised to hear him say this as he was.

"I think Jacob means he works for - ," Katrina started nervously, but Harry and Ginny interrupted simultaneously, " _You're a wizard?_ "

Jacob nodded, doing his best to avoid direct eye contact.

"A-ho!" Ron laughed.

Katrina turned to Harry, " _You're_ a wizard?"

Harry's silence answered her question. She looked around at each person wildly; Harry and Jacob, both surprised and uncertain; Ginny, Hermione, and Ron all extremely amused.

With the most pressing problem out in the open, Jacob now seemed at least moderately at ease. "I told her three weeks ago," he explained to Harry. "She doesn't know… much about Wizarding history yet."

A bell jingled and a babble of restaurant patrons walked through the foyer, chatting animatedly with each other. Everyone watched the patrons in silence until they were once again alone in the foyer. Despite nobody in the vicinity, Katrina dropped her voice to a fervent whisper.

"I think we can all appreciate that we are all confused here, yes?" she said, "But I feel confident enough to say I am the most confused. Did you all go to school together or something?" She said to Jacob, "How do you know Harry and his friends are like you?"

"Katrina…" he said, looking rather uncomfortable. "Everybody in our world knows who they are."

"So - what does that mean?" Katrina said impatiently, "You're all famous or something?"

Jacob and Harry, despite themselves, exchanged a humoring look. How did they get themselves into this conversation?

"Something like that," Harry said.

"Listen," Ginny said, "Sorry to interrupt, but do you guys want to head inside for a drink?"

Ginny and Katrina were fast friends, to Harry's initial horror. He dreaded what a confrontation of his past and present might reveal, but Katrina took her cue from Jacob and therefore was hesitant to ask too many questions about Harry's life since she had known him as a child. This did not mean she was quiet, however, and instead filled the time by animatedly sharing stories of what it was like to grow up in Little Whinging, which meant that Harry was forced to relive stories that Ron later described as "doxie dung". (At first Harry was taken aback by the descriptive term, but Ginny tipsily explained it was a shortened version of an old Wizarding saying _there's doxie dung on the runner, but the doxie's are all a-gunner!_ "So obviously, you see, it's not offensive," she had said, with a wave of her hand, evidently under the impression she had explained the phrase properly).

Katrina remembered far more about primary school than Harry did. Apparently she and Harry had crossed paths more often than he remembered, even both getting sent to the head teacher's office once for - at least the way Katrina remembered it - "turning the floor into warm ice". It was fairly odd hearing these stories from a person he had forgotten existed, but she was a gifted story-teller, making Harry seem more steadfast than he remembered himself to be at the time.

She shared horror stories told from babysitters who were unfortunate enough to have also looked after Dudley (though not Harry, who had always gone to Mrs. Figg's). To Harry's great surprise, he learned that Dudley had not only once pushed a babysitter down the stairs (whether on accident or on purpose had never been determined), but then "immediately locked that poor fellow in the cupboard under the stairs until your aunt and uncle came home!" (causing Harry to choke on his drink).

Thirty minutes later, she had not run out of steam. "So we were stuck in the _loo_ ," she said, telling the only story that Harry had not needed her help to remember, "I think at one point, I hid in the stall because I thought you were in on it with Piers, but then you ran into the stall too because I guess I forgot to lock it, and we hid together for a good long while - it felt like _hours_ , but it was probably only ten minutes." Katrina took a moment to catch her breath before barrelling on. "And you kept taunting Piers, and he kept getting angrier from whatever you were saying, and finally a teacher came - wasn't it Mr. Peters? He came and got Piers in trouble - didn't Piers get in trouble? Anyway, I think that was the last time I saw you, you got the flu and missed the rest of the year."

Harry was laughing despite himself. "I forgot I yelled at him. I think Piers did get in trouble, but he got me back a few days later."

"Really? What'd he do?"

"I accidently set a boa constrictor free at the zoo, and he told my uncle I was talking to it."

"Are these the types of things I need to fear now?" Katrina cried enthusiastically to her husband. "Are these the unfortunate things our children will be doing?"

"The boa constrictor was pretty friendly."

"Were you really talking to it?" Jacob flushed, still evidently uncomfortable directing a question at Harry.

"Yeah, I was! It told me it had never been to Brazil!"

Ron and Ginny roared with laughter.

"Didn't you think that was weird?" Katrina asked, "Talking to a snake?!"

"Yeah, a bit weird."

"Oh dear lord!" Katrina cried, shaking her head. "How did the zoo explain it?"

"Probably what happened was,"Jacob explained, becoming suddenly business-like, "a few people went pretending to be the police or repairmen to say that someone had stolen the glass as a prank and just nobody noticed because of the broken security camera, and then the would have pretended to fix both."

"But that's - that's so - !" Katrina could not appear to find a word severe enough.

"I work for the _Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee_ ," Jacob said to his wife. "It is literally my job to come up with excuses for these types of things. And I'm very good at it," he said with a cocky grin. "You guys keep me rather busy, actually." Jacob pointed at Harry and Ron.

"What do I do?" Ron asked, affronted.

"You sell those bleeding magic toys that wind up in car boot sales and all that, and you," he pointed at Harry, again flushing slightly, but determinedly, "You bleeding run around the country causing all sorts of trouble."

"We'll have to pick up the pace, Hermione!" Ginny teased. "This guy clearly needs more work!"

Jacob shook his head, "Oh, no, you've done your share," he pointed to Hermione. "You guys don't even know the stories I've heard from the Office of Misinformation - everything they had to deal with after the war. Dragons and all that."

"Hey," Ron said mock defensively, "my brother Charlie works with dragons, and he let us know every day for a year what a headache we caused."

Jacob raised his glass in salute. "And don't get me started on Quidditch!" He turned back to Ginny, "Although I don't normally deal with Quidditch - unless it's kids playing in their backyards and a Muggle finds a snitch or something."

"What do you do if someone finds a snitch?"

"We alter their memories, usually."

" _What?_ " Katrina cried, almost spilling her beer, "I can't believe these things I'm hearing. I'm mostly over the shock, mind you, but changing someone's _memory?_ "

"Coming from a Muggle family - I know what you mean. But as a witch, it's not as scary as it sounds."

"What was it like finding out you were a witch?" Katrina asked awestruck.

Hermione sighed nostalgically, "I had a professor from the school visit and explain what it all meant. My parents were thrilled, and I try to bring them around as much as I can so they know what my life is like here." Hermione's smile faltered somewhat, "They were very concerned for me after the war, but I think they understand better now what we're doing."

"Ginny and I already knew we were going to Hogwarts." Ron said, "We had five older brothers ahead of us go. It would have been a tragedy if one of us had ended up non-magical. But we all went to Hogwarts, so…"

"Is that common? Having a non-magical child?"

"Yeah," Jacob explained, "It's called a Squib. Basically a Muggle born from magical parents."

"Will our children be magical?" Katrina asked her husband.

"Don't know, you don't really find out until they're old enough to cause trouble."

"Hear hear!" Ginny cried from behind her beer.

"Mrs. Figg from Little Whinging was a Squib." Harry added to Katrina, realizing she might know her.

"That old cat lady? Really? Well," she added, indicating her husband and giving him a sly grin, "if this doesn't work out, it's good to know I have options."

Jacob inclined his head agreeably.

"So," Katrina turned to Harry, "Did your aunt and uncle have someone visit to explain you were a wizard too? Somehow I have trouble imagining it."

Harry nodded and took the opportunity to down the remains of his beer, conscious of Jacob's concerning look and wondering how much Rita Skeeter he read.

"I bet they loved that," Katrina laughed, but her face quickly turned more somber. After a moment, Katrina asked, "Do you visit Little Whinging ever?"

Katrina did not seem very surprised when Harry shook his head, but sighed and said, "Yeah, the Dursleys were kind of… hm… what's the word?"

"Normal?" Harry offered sarcastically.

"Ha! Yes - I know exactly what you mean! They just wanted to be so incredibly mundane! My parents were like that too, mind. The whole bleeding town was - I always joked that it should be called Big Whinging, because whinging was all they ever did. I'm not telling my parents that Jacob's a wizard for a long time, if ever!"

"You know - I think Dudley improved a bit."

" _Really now?_ " Katrina said doggedly, and, resting her chin on her palm, prepared herself for an interesting story.

"Yeah! Before the Dursleys went into hiding, he told me I wasn't a waste of space, so you know, _lots_ of maturity happened at Smeltings." Harry said sarcastically.

"Went into hiding?"

There was a pause in which everyone looked around at one another.

"It was the war," Ginny said at last. "A lot of us eventually went into hiding."

Katrina seemed aware that the tone had sobered.

"Well," she said lightly, "That at least explains the year the Dursley's lawn was left overgrown."

Hermione jumped as Harry unexpectedly began to laugh. Katrina, who took little encouragement, began laughing as well. Everyone stared at the pair of them, wondering what about her statement had possibly been so funny.


End file.
